Before purchasing LEGO storage for your home, it’s important to make sure that it will meet your needs.

Let’s spend a few minutes identifying who is the primary builder in your home, how many bricks you have, where you like to build LEGO models, and where you store your collection.

Age of LEGO builder?

Very young LEGO builders do not need a lot of LEGO bricks or any organization whatsoever — they will create models which are inspired by the parts that they discover while building. Whether you are 5 or 50 years old, digging through a pile of loose LEGO bricks is an act of discovery. While older builders tend to prefer more organization, it’s fun for anyone to discover a brick that they have never seen, or haven’t seen in a long time.

Younger LEGO builders prefer little or no organization, while older builders prefer a well organized LEGO collection. (There is no significant difference in organizational preferences for ages 30 or higher.)

Age of primary LEGO builders?

Young Kids — All you really need is a container that’s large enough to store all of your LEGO bricks. Since no organization is required, look for a storage solution that is quick to set up and easy to clean up.

Older Kids — As kids get older, their LEGO collection might become too large to store in a single container, or they might become increasingly frustrated searching for a specific piece. This is when you might want to look for a way to organize your LEGO collection into broad categories. While many people start by organizing LEGO bricks by color, most adults (and some kids) prefer to sort their LEGO bricks into broad categories (such as Bricks, Plates, Tiles, Slopes, Technic, Minifigures, or Other.) — Why? Because it’s really hard to find a specific small black piece in a container full of black pieces.

Experienced LEGO Builders — As LEGO collections grow, and LEGO builders become more familiar with common LEGO bricks, they might want to sort their collection even further. The typical progression is to begin by sorting basic bricks, plates, and tiles by element. Eventually moving on to less common parts like slopes, wedges, tiles, and Technic elements. If the collection grows further still, it might make sense to sort the most common bricks, plates, and tiles by both part and color.

While the stages described above focus on younger builders, adult LEGO enthusiasts follow a similar progression. As your LEGO collection grows and your familiarity with common LEGO elements increases, you will probably want a more organized collection. Always remember that the goal of your LEGO collection is to have fun — don’t bother sorting your LEGO bricks if you are happy dumping them out on the floor and building something awesome.

Size of your LEGO collection?

Let’s start by estimating the size of your LEGO collection, since it is an important factor in determining the best organizational system and best storage solutions for your collection.

Estimating number of LEGO pieces:

Add them up – If you know which LEGO sets you own, you can look up number of bricks for each set and add them up.

By Volume – around 250 pieces per liter (250 pieces per quart, or 1000 pieces per gallon.)

By Weight – around 700 pieces per kilogram (300 pieces per pound.)

LEGO sets aimed at young kids have larger bricks that weigh more, and LEGO sets aimed at adults have lots of tiny pieces that weigh very little. As such, these methods of estimating the size of your collection aren’t very precise. Don’t worry, these estimates are just one of the factors we will use in Chapter 2: Organizational strategies for your LEGO Collection.

What do you like to build?

Do you build LEGO Trains, Great ball contraptions, Architecture, Miniland figures, Sculptures, Spaceships? Or maybe you build in a variety of styles?

With thousands of unique LEGO elements released over more than 60 years, sorting your LEGO collection can be a daunting endeavor. An important way to simplify the process is to focus on the LEGO parts you use most.

For example: If your passion is Technic, you might want a meticulously sorted Technic collection with drawers for each unique piece, while quickly sorting the rest of your LEGO bricks (that you rarely use) into broad categories.

If you like to build models across a variety of different themes, you might want a general-purpose storage solution that allows you to customize your work area by bringing just the parts needed for your current project. Plastic Drawers or removable containers are well suited to this.

Portability?

Where will you store your LEGO? Where do you like to build models? Do you need to bring your bricks to a school, friend’s house, or a LEGO convention?

Deciding whether or not your collection needs to be portable is a critical step in picking the right storage solutions. There are relatively few options if you want a truly portable LEGO storage solution.

Portable outside of your home — If you take your collection to schools, LEGO conventions, or while traveling, you need a storage solution which has a tight fitting lid.

Portable within your home — If your LEGO storage is in a different room than where you like to build your models, you want to make sure you can bring the parts you need to your workspace. Many storage solutions allow you to remove a single container, and bring it back when you are done.

Not Portable — If you build in the same location as your LEGO is stored, you have more storage options.

Now that we better understand your collection and needs, let’s decide how to organize your LEGO Bricks…

2 Responses

I dream of owning an 18-wheeled trailer truck that has my entire collection in the trailer with a tiny “bedroom.” It would be equipped with the “sliding tracked storage system” so I might store more stuff while keeping it safe during transport. I could drive to any convention and have all my parts ready for anything!

I am an AFOL with a large collection. certain parts that work best with other parts ( tires , wheels, and axles) should be stored together. Lego shows depend on moving a Lego display intact where Lego Competition like the first Lego League may benefit from a wheeled storage unit

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